A shopping centre in Milton Keynes has opened a virtual reality booth where visitors can experience the world from the perspective of an autistic child.
Devised by the National Autistic Society (NAS) and retail group intu, the initiative is designed to bring awareness and support for autistic shoppers and their families, and will be touring 14 other shopping centres around the UK.
The booth uses virtual reality to capture the sights and sounds of a shopping centre, as experienced by the star of the film, 10-year-old Alex Marshall.
The booth uses virtual reality to bring the viral film “Can you make it to the end?” to life. Simulating the experience of a 10-year-old Alex Marshall, participants can experience the sights and sounds of an autistic child traversing a shopping centre.
Mark Lever, Chief Executive of the National Autistic Society, said: “Virtual reality is such a fantastic medium and we want to use it to help people identify with a young autistic boy who is having a crisis in a shopping centre.”
The initiative follows an autism awareness campaign led by the NAS, which found that one in two autistic people “often don’t leave their homes because they are worried about negative and judgemental responses, due to a lack of understanding of autism”.
“We’re pleased to be working with the National Autistic Society to be raising awareness of autism among all our shoppers and our staff using this impactful virtual reality experience. This is part of work by intu Milton Keynes to promote social togetherness and tackle local issues within the communities which we serve”, said Shelley Peppard, general manager of intu Milton Keynes.